Global PP market to double by 2016 - study

25 June 2008 16:37[Source: ICIS news]

TORONTO (ICIS news)--The global polypropylene (PP) market is expected to double by 2016 on higher prices and sales volumes, capacity additions in emerging economies and new PP product applications as it replaces glass, metals as well as other plastics, market researchers said on Wednesday.

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Last year, PP market volumes were 45m tonnes, with a value of about $68bn, Germany-based chemical researchers Ceresanasaid in a study.

The company expected considerable increases in PP capacities in coming years, along with improved supplies for propylene, its primary feedstock, it said.

The ?xml:namespace>Middle East was emerging as a large PP producer, Ceresana said.

It pointed in particular to the 400,000 tonne/year Teldene project in Saudi Arabia which was currently being commissioned, and newly expanded capacities of 500,000 tonne/year by Ibn Zahr, also in Saudi Arabia.

“The Middle East is progressing to become one of the most important suppliers of PP and is expected to contest especially the American manufacturers and the interested export markets in China and India,” said Ceresana.

Another emerging PP producer was Kazakhstan which was benefiting from an abundances in raw materials, the research firm said.

Meanwhile, the importance of the established industrialised countries as PP exporting nations would continue to diminish in coming year, relative to competitors in China, Saudi Arabia and elsewhere, Ceresana said.

In the US and Europe smaller producers with capacities of below 200,000 tonnes/year would continue to shut down while large producers such a Borealis were expected to expand further, it added.

The global PP market was characterised by tens of thousands of processing companies who were being supplied by about 100 PP majors with large market power, according to Ceresana.